Love me or Leave me
by Cecilia Cassarah
Summary: Is it possible to love someone and reconcile back into a life in which they are not a part of, after they leave you? Is it possible to turn your love off towards them? Does it work that way? Ya...I don't know the answer either, but I am gonna try to find it out anyway.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey Everyone! This is the prologue of my new story. This idea was running around my head and haunting me, so I just had to write it down. So here it is...**

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_Don't think you're gonna change what's inside of me_  
_Make me who you want me to be_  
_I Won't be someone I'm not_  
_Somebody else, for someone else_  
_Love me with all my imperfections_  
_Not for an image of your design_  
_Love me for what you see inside_

_Love me for me, Ashley Tisdale_

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"Two cheese burgers and one French fries", Serena shouted lowering her head into the square opening in the wall, the other side of which the magic was done.

Kidding, the other side was the kitchen that was filled with noises of clinging from metal vessels being pushed around and people talking in hasty manner obviously determined to feed the hungry crowd that was swarming the little restaurant before they could get impatient.

Saturdays were always a little rush.

Especially in Café Lunch for two reasons. One, they served the best burgers, all through the week. Two, they offered 10% off on burgers during the weekends and had many deals on other items. And even though it's the most plausible reason Serena sternly believed in the former as she'd become a family to employees and refused to doubt her chef's ability.

Mrs. Hope, head chef, nodded her head with a gentle short smile reassuring me that she indeed took the order from her. She was one of those women who'd radiant mother vibe around her that made you want to smile back warmly at her.

Katherine, sous-chef, who was two years older than Serena and with experience at cooking older than most women of the town, passed the plate of sandwich and French fries across the small wooden plank along the bottom edge of the kitchen-hole, towards Serena and called table 4 in a general direction not even bothering to look at her.

At first her rather unfriendly manner had taken Serena, and the others too, back in surprise but it was something they got used to as she was not the one to meddle with other people's lives and expected them of nothing but to return the favor.

Serena's smile was not faltered even by Kate's usual rude behavior, as she believed people don't chose to be unpleasant but only respond to the way their life was and pitied Kate as she suspected her life should really be a mess, for her to be that annoyed all the time. She took the plate towards the designated table and placed it with professional maneuver and smiled at the customers in the booth.

It was raining again, she observed through the glass window that extended mid-wall to the ceiling covering the north façade of the building full along its length offering a great view of the far-stretched forest.

Serena was not pleased with the weather whatsoever as her shift was coming to an end and to her damned luck she had left her umbrella and coat at her home before hurrying off to work, not that she was reprimanded if she was late, in fact she was Tia's, her employer's, absolute favorite, but she was always surely punctual without any exception.

Her shift ended and she grabbed her jacket, bidding good-byes to everyone in the kitchen which they gleefully returned. She finally stopped to say good night to Tia. Tia Call was a lovely lady. She was compassionate, friendly and had never once treated anyone anything less than her equal. That was exactly why she made every one of her employees call her by her first name, even the much younger ones.

"Good night, Tia. I'm taking off." Serena hugged her tightly.

"In this weather?", Tia raised her eyebrow quizzically.

"Don't worry, I got used to this damn town's weather that we are on first name basis now." Serena replied with a wink.

"You talk with the weather?" Tia asked like she was trying to suppress a laugh.

"Only when I feel the need to give a piece of my mind"

Tia laughed shaking her head at the teenager heading for the door, who always seems to make her laugh even when she barely wanted to smile.

Tia watched her, opening the door and going outside; sighed and returned to waitressing.

Serena took a step back, hoping to cover her from rain, under the small shade above the door when the rain startled her with its chillness. She quickly reconciled to bare the cold and started to walk ahead only to run straight into a tall figure wearing a hoodie, whose hands sprang towards her to hold her back from falling. She looked up to apologize, for someone as big as him was probably hard to miss but somehow she had managed to bump into his rock hard chest, but she was met with the kindest eyes she had ever seen, which turned into one of adoration and love and something more that she couldn't place, as soon as his bright dark brown eyes met hers.

They both stood there in the pouring rain looking at each other completely oblivious to the surroundings.

She barely heard the three boys, walking behind the tall figure, laughing and shoving each other as they stalked towards their friend's mom's Café, and so when an arm patted on the mystery man's shoulder, they both were startled. Serena's shock was doubled when she followed the arm along its length to meet the face of… him. Even if he was the last man on earth, she wouldn't have been pleased to meet him. His face mirrored her panic but instead of the contempt her eyes hold, in his were that one of sorry and longing. And love.

Her mystery man's eyes were worried as her face fell with unfathomable expression on looking his friend and he suspected the reason may not be pleasant for him to hear. She quickly pulled away from him and muttered a sorry and went away leaving behind two heartbroken and two very hungry boys, who towed the other two towards the Café.

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**So... ?**


	2. The Magic Word

**Hey people! Hope you enjoy the chapter!**

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_She ties up her hair  
Her makeup is smeared  
Wiping the tears that she wants no one to see  
She screams on the pain  
I hear every word  
Why don't you know how beautiful you are  
Just see it in my broken smileWish I could tell her  
You're one in a million  
You're going the distance, babe  
You're gonna work it out someday  
I wish I could tell her  
You're one in a million  
But you never even look my way_

_One in a million, Backstreet boys_

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**Chapter 1: The Magic Word**

Serena tossed and turned in her bed, trying helplessly to get rid of the images from her head. When she was awake she couldn't help from let her mind wander towards the mystery man and when miraculously she got some sleep, she was haunted by the images of tall dark wolf abandoning her in the middle of wicked forest midst the pouring rain.

She finally gave up her pathetic attempt at sleeping and grabbed her shoes from under her bed and put it on and grabbed her mobile. She cracked her window open and stopped it when it made a screeching sound, which sent her heart into hyper-drive. And when she felt safe that no one- neither her mom nor her little sister- were startled by the sound and came to check on her, she pushed the window open and jumped out effortlessly, silently thanking her decision of picking this room closer to forest, when her family first moved to this town.

She waited a moment to give time for her eyes adjust to the darkness, then she walked into the forest, following her well-known, trodden path she was very familiar with.

It led to a small clearance with over-grown bushes offering a shelter against the incessant downpour.

But she felt being watched that alarmed her senses. Though somehow she felt safe under the gaze of her stalker. 'God, I need some sleep' she thought seeing how her thoughts didn't even came sense to her and dismissed it completely.

She heard a twig snapping towards her right and tensed up like a deer caught in the light, and goosebumps that was building was not of any help. She slowly called out into the darkness if anyone was there. Right on cue the bush from which she had heard the sound started to shake and vibrate, while she was busy telling her good-byes mentally to her family, anticipating a psychopath to sprint out from the bush any moment.

Somewhere in between wondering whether she was destined to die a virgin and hoping if she would have enough time to make a call before her assassin reached her, two tall figures came out of the bush. The moonlight lit their figures a pale bluish gray and she realized they both were shirtless and from what she could decipher in the soft light, they had enough muscles to take down Chuck Norris, if they'd want to. When they stepped closer, she recognized the face of the man walking in slightly faster pace as Paul Lahote, the talk of the town who captured the heart of Rachel Black, and who will capture her hand in marriage in few weeks.

She felt her herself let out a breathe which she hadn't realized she'd held back, to only taken away again as she recognized the second figure as her mystery men. Her heart fluttered and somehow knew this meant trouble.

They both halted a safe distance from her, in an attempt to not to scare her. But Serena knew for sure even they could hear her heart pounding in fear and there was a warm tugging in her heart towards the second guy, who kept looking at the ground but sneaking glances now and then in a way that made her heart bounce happily.

"What are you doing here at this time of night?" Paul asked, his emotion unreadable. If he was annoyed he was good at hiding it.

"Meeting my secret lover?" Serena said smiling sweetly at him. Paul was startled and the mystery guy's head shot up like he was just slapped him.

"Joking" I held my hands up defensively. Somehow Serena felt the need to reassure him.

"You didn't answer the question." Paul stated, rather arrogantly which was starting to tick her off after the few frustrating hours she spent trying to sleep.

"Well, the last time I checked, I don't answer to you." Serena said with same amount of arrogance dripping in my voice as his did.

"Besides I could ask the same about you. What are you guys doing here?" I said. And the realization dawned on her that, that was not the best question to ask two half-cad men walking from a bush, especially when one is engaged and the other is your crush.

_Crush? When did that happen? _Serena thought to herself when another voice inside her head answered.

_About the time when the possibility that 'mystery man' might be gay and your fantasy might never come true became a serious option to consider._

_Okay, you win. _Serena surrendered to that logical and twisted voice which did an evil laugh claiming it's victory.

Paul let out a frustrated sigh and Serena knew she was pushing his buttons.

Though she didn't know Paul in person, his temper was as legendary as... well Leah's, for the lack of better comparison, so she decided the best way would be smooth talking herself out of this.

"I couldn't sleep so I was talking a walk" Serena answered to Paul's surprise who just thought this was going to be a long night.

"Well, you shouldn't. It's dangerous out here and you may not know what the forests hide" Paul said. This time it was Serena's turn to be surprised.

_My, My Is Paul Lahote, the bad boy of the town actually worrying for a stranger? Has the hell finally frozen over? He's such a marshmallow._ She couldn't help but wonder.

"Well, enlighten me, Paul. I don't see any danger here and I know this part of the forest like the back of my hand"

"How did you know my name?" Paul asked curiously.

"I am a friend of Rachel's, well, kinda of. Billy, Rachel and her brother came over to the shop one day and Tia talked them into inviting me to your wedding too." Serena said rather embarrassingly. Although Rachel jumped to invite her to wedding, she kinda felt like she was imposing on them.

They both were surprised by her answer.

"Tia? You know my mom?" The mystery guy asked and the puzzle pieces snapped into place. She knew from the beginning that his eyes were vaguely familiar.

"Yeah I work at her shop as a waitress. So you are Embry Call then?"

"Yes, You know me?" He asked with bubbles of happiness surfacing on his eyes.

"Not really. Tia used to talk about you and we go to the same school , but you just about disappeared while I got transferred here, and also I am a junior." String of memories rushed back to her as she thought back to the time these people started disappearing but willed her mind to stop before going too far into the memories.

"Oh" was his brilliant answer as he was silently cursing the spirits for deciding him to be a werewolf/shapeshifter taking away the time during which he could have met his imprint but he quickly decided that if not for his werewolf genes, he wouldn't have found her in first place..

"So? Aren't gonna tell me the mysteries of the forest that I should be afraid of?"

"For starters there are wolves here" Paul said gauging her expression carefully.

"They don't meddle with people's lives. I saw one and the poor thing took off in the other direction" Serena said giggling at the memory of the scared wolf. She felt pity for the poor creature that she almost wanted to hug him.

Both their expressions were unreadable to her.

"You should go back to your house" Paul said but this time he said it with concern etching in his voice.

No use in fighting, she thought. Memories were kindled, to her surprise mystery guy, well, _Embry_ turned up and her emotions were in turmoil. So going to her secret will not serve any purpose but rather taint it's record as the only place that comforts her even if she surpasses her intruders and make it there. She made up her mind.

"You didn't say the magic word" Serena said with her eyes twinkling mischievously.

"Please" Paul said rolling his eyes.

"Fine. See you around." She called at the two boys and by the time she returned to her house, the sun was already shining. 'Good thing that tomorrow is Sunday' Serena remember only that last thought as her head hit the pillow and sleep drowned her instantly, to her own surprise.

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**As always R&R. Making this story your Favorite and following the story is appreciated too.**


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